President Hill’s editorial from the October 2008 issue of the Electrical Worker

November is No Time for Myths

President John F. Kennedy once said, “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

Was this visionary leader leaving us a warning about the 2008 presidential election?

One day after our nation’s financial system suffered its greatest hit in generations, workers and retirees across the nation wondered if their 401(k) plans would keep sinking and leave them destitute. But Sen. John McCain said, “The fundamentals of the economy are strong.”

Sen. Barack Obama asked McCain what economy he was talking about. Some TV pundits said that the Arizona senator appeared to be out of touch and insensitive. So his campaign wound him up and sent him out to attack Obama and talk about how he and Sarah Palin were “mavericks” who would rein in and regulate the bad actors on Wall Street.

This is John McCain—the guy who told the Wall Street Journal last year, “I am fundamentally a deregulator.”  This is John McCain, whose top economic advisor, former Sen. Phil Gramm, was responsible for introducing the dangerous legislation—written by banking lobbyists—that allowed financial institutions to engage in the riskiest of loans. This is John McCain, the guy who voted against raising the minimum wage 19 times and voted against repealing tax breaks that encourage American companies to send jobs overseas. Regulate the bad actors? Give me a break.

McCain’s party, which always promises lower taxes and less government, is spending billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money to bail out banks and insurance companies. 

Sens. McCain and Obama both have established records in their legislative careers that show just where they stand on regulation and deregulation, on trade policy and on the rights and needs of working families.

Let’s heed President Kennedy’s warning and not fall for dangerous myths when our nation’s very future is on the line.